Hi. Please find below a recent e-mail that I sent to Charles Dunstone at Carphone Warehouse regarding my treatment at the hands of a talktalk representative:

Hello Mr Dunstone,

My name is Christopher Fox. I am currently a Talk 3 Landline Subscriber.

I had reason to contact TalkTalk today because my current broadband contract with Wanadoo is due to expire at the end of this month. My intention was to find out a little bit more about the TalkTalk broadband package, with a view to possibly signing up.

I initially rang Customer Services and spoke to an account manager, explaining that I had done a little prior research, from which I had discovered that my area wasn't covered by the free broadband service, but that broadband was available to me for £10 per month if I signed up to the Talk 3 package for £8.99 per month.

I queried the fact that surely I could just add broadband onto my existing Talk 3 package for which I pay £7.99 per month, and not be subject to an 18 month contract, as free broadband was not available to me. The person I initially spoke to said that they weren't sure and that they would transfer me through to Sales and Registrations.

I was transferred through to Sales and Registrations. I believe I spoke to someone called John, in one of your Northern Call centres, John was very unhelpful from the start of the call and gave me the impression that he even disbelieved that I was on a £7.99 package to start with.

John regularly disappeared from the conversation to speak to someone else, and left me on hold whilst doing so, towards the end of the call I got the impression that John wasn't the most knowledgeable of call centre staff so I asked to be transferred through to his manager or supervisor, John then proceeded to the end the call with the words..."You are causing so much shit, you're making a thingy of yourself" and then promptly hung the receiver up on me.

Recently I watched a report on the BBC about the farcical way in which you were treating customers that were trying to sign upto the "Free Broadband for Life" offer, and although I felt sorry for the people featured, I felt that their experience was isolated, and not the norm as my experience of TalkTalk although not perfect, had up until today been fairly good.

However this individual has as far as I'm concerned only confirmed to me that in trying to plug the gaps caused by this ill thought out and planned promotion you have only succeeded in employing Neanderthals that would be better off in the dole queue.

I understand and whole heartedly believe in the importance of good customer service, and your company falls well short of the mark in employing individuals like this man.

Unless this matter is resolved in my favour, without leaving a very sour taste in my mouth then I intend to report it to the relevant authorities that govern you, and I will send a copy of this e-mail to the BBC who at the end of the show in question were asking for follow up feedback.

I'm sure they will appreciate mine, as it will make compelling viewing to the general public.

Yours faithfully,


Mr. Christopher Fox
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For obvious reasons I have removed all references to my account number and address, this e-mail was posted on 10th October, and as of 12th October I am still to hear a response. I will update you all as and when I hear.

Unforunately you aren't the only one to suffer at TalkTalk's **** customer service.  So I'm not sure there's so much interest as it isn't a rare occurence.  

It doesn't stop nutcases like Martin (MSE Martin) from blindly endorsing it (still endorsing it) as his best phone/broadband deal.   ::)

Foxy,

You might want to take a look at the website of www.directsavetelecom.co.uk and their Option 4 product.  Only a 28 day contract for unlimited 8MB ADSL Max broadband and unlimited 01/02 calls of up to 1 hour duration for £16.99 per month.

Don't know about the quality of their customer service though.

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I never did hear back from Mr Dunstone, but after about ten calls, and lots of broken promises of calls back I eventually got through to someone in the high level complaints department who finally treated my complaint seriously.

The following is an e-mail I received from them this morning:

Hello Mr Fox

just to confirm the following credits have been raised to your account
£32
£50
£50

this totals £132 and leaves your account in credit by £139.37 which as agreed will stay on your account to take care of your next few bills.

many thanks

??????????????
Customer Options Advisor
EXT ??????????


The Company makes no representations as regards the absence of viruses in this E-Mail. If you have received this E-Mail in error please notify our IT Service Desk immediately by e-mail at postmaster@cpw.co.uk Please then immediately delete, erase or otherwise destroy this E-Mail and any copies of it.

Any opinions expressed in this E-Mail are those of the author and do not necessarily constitute the views of the Company. Nothing in this E-Mail shall bind the Company in any contract or obligation.

For the purposes of this E-Mail "the Company" means The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc and/or any of its subsidiaries.

Please feel free to visit our website: http:// www.carphonewarehouse.com or http://www.phonehouse.com

The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc (Registered in England No. 3253714) 1 Portal Way, London W3 6RS.

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This just goes to prove that if you stick to your guns and carry on hounding these companies you will get a result that makes you happy. Good luck all you moneysavers!   ;D

P.S. Do yourselves a favour and keep a log of every call you make so that if you're ever asked for dates, times and names you can give all the detail you can to help your case.

Foxy.